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Unique file numbers
1Standard Crime Contract Specification 2017 paras 4.40 and 4.41.12.4The contract requires you to assign a unique file number (UFN) to every case. The case will retain the UFN throughout its life as it moves through the classes of work. Where you act for more than one client on the same case, each client will have their own UFN, though where you must submit a consolidated claim (see chapter 14) it will be under one ‘lead’ UFN. Where you act for one client on more than one case, each case will have its own UFN.
12.5All UFNs must be in the format set out in the contract – DDMMYY/NNN, where DDMMYY is the date the client first instructed you on that matter and NNN is a unique three digit number. It does not matter what that number is, as long as no two clients or cases have the same number.
12.6So, for example, the first client to instruct you on 1 February 2017 would have the UFN 01022017/001, the second might then be 01022017/002, and so on.
12.7The purpose of the UFN is to allow the Legal Aid Agency (LAA) to track and, where necessary, check all work done for a particular client. You are therefore required to record the UFN on file, use it for all applications and claims to the LAA and, since the LAA will use it when communicating with you, ensure that you can search your database against it.
Disbursements
12.8Disbursements – that is, expenses incurred in the course of a client’s case – are generally permitted where it is in the best interests of the client to incur the disbursement for the purpose of giving advice, and the amount of the disbursement is reasonable.
2Standard Crime Contract 2017 Specification para 5.38.12.9This amounts to a three-stage test:
1)Is it in the best interests of the client?
2)Is it for the purposes of giving advice or representation?
3)Is the amount is reasonable?
12.10The client’s best interests will be served by incurring expenditure that is necessary for you to conduct the case, or that will assist (or may assist) in achieving the best outcome. For example, travel expenses may be in the client’s best interests, even though the client does not benefit directly, because it is necessary for you to incur them to get to court. An expert report may or may not assist the client’s case – that would depend on what the expert says – but where it has the potential to do so it would likely be in the client’s best interests to obtain it. This test should not be applied with the benefit of hindsight; the question is, what was reasonable based on what was known at the time?
12.11‘For the purpose of advice or representation’ describes the nature and purpose of the expense. To use the preceding example, travel expenses to court are justifiable as being for the purpose of providing representation. A medical report to comment on a client’s medical situation would be for that purpose, since it is evidence that could be put before the court, but paying for the client to see a medical expert to obtain treatment would not, since it is not necessary for the purpose of giving advice for the client to be treated, only for you to know what his or her condition is.
12.12Finally, the amount of the disbursement must be reasonable. The rates for expert witnesses, save in defined exceptional circumstances prescribed by Schedule 5 to the Criminal Legal Aid (Remuneration) Regulations 2013 as amended, are to be found in that schedule. Although it is not mandatory to obtain prior authority to incur disbursements,
3Standard Crime Contract 2017 Specification para 5.32. doing so is advisable where substantial sums are to be incurred as prior authority ensures that, unless the scope of the disbursement is not as authorised, it will be paid.
4Standard Crime Contract 2017 Specification para 5.29.12.13Where disbursements are incurred, you should retain a receipt or invoice on file.
5Standard Crime Contract 2017 Specification para 5.40. Where you incur mileage, the contract rate is 45 pence per mile.
6Standard Crime Contract 2017 Specification para 5.48.12.14The LAA has power to fix the maximum payments that may be paid to third parties such as experts.
7Standard Crime Contract 2017 Standard Terms para 3.6. Limits have been set to experts’ fees in Schedule 5 to the Remuneration Regulations. These fees may be exceeded only in exceptional circumstances.
8Criminal Legal Aid (Remuneration) Regulations 2013, as amended, regs 16(2) and 16(3). You must require third parties to keep a record of their time spent on a case if the fees will exceed £250.
9Standard Crime Contract 2017 Standard Terms para 3.7.12.15Witness expenses to attend court cannot generally be funded under the contract, unless the court has directed that they may not be recovered from central funds (the usual source of witness expenses, including fees of professional witnesses) and they are not recoverable from any other source.
10Standard Crime Contract 2017 Specification para 5.47.